


heartbeat on the high line

by theriveroflight



Series: keep running when both my feet hurt (lbsc sprints) [9]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Thieves, Angst with a Happy Ending, Endgame Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, F/M, Implied Relationships, LBSC Sprint Fic Challenge, Tasers, the romance is fairly on the dl but it's definitely moving towards that?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-25 07:20:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30085476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theriveroflight/pseuds/theriveroflight
Summary: Marinette's not a mouse anymore. She's not a coward. She can stand, and outstretch her hand, and just pray that he will take it for once.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: keep running when both my feet hurt (lbsc sprints) [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2223567
Comments: 3
Kudos: 25
Collections: LBSCSprintFicChallenge





	heartbeat on the high line

**Author's Note:**

> Inspiration taken from the Carmen Sandiego reboot on Netflix; I took the vague idea of Carmen and Grey's relationship and spun it around a little bit.
> 
> LBSC sprint challenge: wildcard - past prompt - thief/heist au
> 
> CWs: injury, arguing
> 
> There's also a little bit of implied unrequited Marigami, but that barely shows up.
> 
> Title from "cardigan" by Taylor Swift.

“Get back,” Marinette says, holding up her taser.

“So  _ you’re  _ the infamous Ladybug,” Luka answers.

“You’re right,” she replies. “But I don’t know who you are.”

She doesn’t tighten her grip, but it’s a near thing.

She’s lying, of course. But Luka certainly doesn’t know that.

“You’re a liar,  _ Multimouse.” _

She winces. “That’s  _ not my name.” _

“...it was, though, wasn’t it.”

“How do you know that?” she asks, continuing to brandish the weapon. She should fire. She  _ should  _ take him out here and now.

“I think you know, Ladybug,” Luka answers. “I think you know that.”

She does. She  _ does  _ know that.

Luka is the only thing she regrets about leaving.

“Hand over the jewels, and everything will be fine,” she threatens. “Why do you even need them?”

“I don’t.” He shrugs. “It’s  _ them  _ that needs them.”

“Have you ever bothered to question  _ why?”  _ she yells.

“You’re going to attract attention, Ladybug.”

“That’s the point,” she answers, tucking away her taser. “They’ll see a man attacking a lady carrying stolen jewels, and even though I’m a wanted criminal I’ll get off more easily.”

“You always were rather clever.” Luka tilts his head. “But…ladybugs are so much easier to trap than mice. The right bait, and they’ll come.”

“Not to you,” she responds, and whips out the taser, shocking him and running before any guards are summoned by the ruckus.

* * *

Ladybug. Ladybug isn’t her real name — and neither is Multimouse, though. Certainly the name she was assigned, but her name now is Marinette, and Ladybug is just a kind of safety precaution.

She left the Artists a long time ago. She was an  _ artist,  _ but certainly not an  _ Artist,  _ capital A.

“Marinette?” Adrien asks. “Is something wrong?”

“I just…they got him back, and I don’t know how.”

“Who?”

“Who do you  _ think?”  _ she asks.

“Oh, are you still hung up on Luka?” he groans. “That Interpol officer has a crush on you, you could definitely take that. Or else I will.”

“I’m not into Officer Tsurugi. Believe me, I’d love to move on. Even with Felix.” Both of them shudder at the thought, because romantic attraction towards Felix would end in disaster for the bearer.

“Then why haven’t you?”

“He just…he used my old name tonight.”

“I thought you said it didn’t get to you anymore.”

“It’s…” She sighs. “It’s complicated. I wanted to let go, but at the same time I still can’t.”

“Do you think you can convince him to join?”

She stops. She hadn’t even  _ considered  _ that possibility, what kind of strategist  _ was  _ she if she hadn’t even considered the most  _ obvious  _ possibility?

“I might.”

“Then it’s worth it. If you can convince someone else to leave the Artists, well…”

“I know.” Marinette shuts her eyes. “Adrien, do you ever regret leaving?”

“Not for a minute,” he answers. “It led me to Felix. And to so much greater opportunities than whatever my father had to offer.”

She nods. “Luka’s loyalties are to his family. As long as Jagged is on the Board and Juleka is still with them, he isn’t going anywhere.”

“Then…what can you do to turn him, Marinette?” 

“There…is something.” She lowers her head. “But I don’t want to do it unless I absolutely have to. Because I don’t want to make him forget. I don’t want to  _ manipulate  _ him into leaving.”

“You’ve gotta play hardball sometimes,” Adrien says, and when she looks at him his eyes are narrowed. “But I understand your trepidation. Which one do you think will be more valuable to him?”

“His sister definitely could be worth something if we could get  _ her  _ to swap too. But I think what might be the most helpful is we can promise information on his mother.”

“And can you do that?” he asks.

“I’ll need Felix’s help on the tech side, but…I think I can. Just need to do some research. I know her name, I know their last name, I can get some information.”

Marinette pulls her laptop towards her and searches for Anarka Couffaine, just a cursory search.

* * *

“What are you doing here?” he asks.

“Same thing I always do,” she answers with a nonchalant shrug, and then zips out of the mansion through an open window.

Marinette relishes in the way that he just stares at her as she exits.

And she makes sure to let the folder drop.

With all the information they’ve got.

It’s up to Luka whether he wants to know or not.

* * *

“Hey girl,” Alya asks. “How’d it go?”

“Excellent,” she answers. “The heist went off without a hitch, and the information has been planted. Now we just have to wait and see.”

Alya lets out a little tsk. “Any police?”

“Didn’t see any Interpol. Just saw the city police. Didn’t get caught, of course, or I wouldn’t be here.”

* * *

A knock on her train compartment.

Marinette comes alone on the trip. She knows what she’s doing, she can handle herself, and she’s prepared for whatever may come.

She stands up and opens the door.

“Hello, Luka.”

“Ladybug.”

“Sit,” she says. “I just want to talk.”

“I find that hard to believe,” Luka answers dryly, but he sits down in the compartment and shuts the door behind him.

“Why’d you come?” she asks.

“Starting with the hard questions.”

“I like to get down to the point.”

It feels like a standoff. She doesn’t want it to be like another form of fighting; she’s tired of fighting him — she’ll keep fighting if she must but if she can get Luka to come with her then all the better.

“You left the note. I was intrigued enough by what you found where I thought I would come, if only to see how exactly you came up with it.”

Marinette nods. “It took a lot of digging with my team, but I thought perhaps you should have all the facts.”

“And for that matter, how did you know my mother used to be one of the Artists?”

“I was on the island much longer than you — I’ve practically been there since I was born,” she answers. “I remember her. You and Juleka got time outside, remember?”

“I don’t miss it.”

Marinette’s a little taken aback by that.

“It was just my sister and I, bouncing between foster homes. And besides, I wouldn’t have met…some of the people I care about to this day.”

“You know she’s alive.” Back to the topic at hand. She doesn’t want to delve into “some of the people he cares about” being among them.

“And I’ll visit her.” Luka snaps the file shut. “Thank you for your information, M. I don’t want…” He trails off as he stands, opening the door of the compartment.

“What don’t you want?” she asks, standing up in turn.

“To hold you back,” he confesses. “You’re only still doing this because of me.”

She snorts. “That’s not right. I’m still in the business because the Artists are corrupt and need to be taken down.”

“Why? You could have just…cut your ties, but you chose to put yourself back in the field.” His eyes narrow and they both sit down, the compartment door sliding shut again.

“They’re greedy. They don’t want to promote art, they want to have enough money to the point where they can  _ shut up  _ anyone that wants to fight with them,” Marinette says, raising her voice towards the end. She’s passionate, and she knows exactly why she left. “I’m sorry I have a  _ moral compass  _ and couldn’t stand to be a part of their greed and their conformity.”

(There’s a part of her that doesn’t know who she is if she’s not a thief, a part of her that doesn’t know who she is without the thrill of the chase. She’s eager to find out, yet she keeps putting it off.)

Luka blinks. “I had no idea you were so passionate about this, M.”

He doesn’t know that her name is Marinette. She learned that after she left; she learned that after she found her birth certificate, the name she was born with.

He’s probably using M as “short for Multimouse without offending her with a name she doesn’t use anymore and not as uncomfortable for him as using Ladybug”.

But it feels like a compromise, and one that she doesn’t mind. Between the past and the future, like she always is when faced with him.

“I wouldn’t have left you if I didn’t mean it,” she responds. “Because I…there’s a reason I want you to come with me so badly.”

“I know.”

“I know you don’t want to take my hand,” she says, “or well, metaphorically at least. I’m not…I’m still going to ask that, because I don’t want the—”

The person she  _ loves  _ to be stuck in the dark.

“So now you know. You have all the information. And I have the resources to take you to her.”

“The resources, huh?” Luka tilts his head. “They do, too.”

“But will they let you?” Marinette crosses her arms. “Think about it.”

“I know they’re manipulating me. But I can’t leave Juleka in there to the wolves. I need to get her out before I can join you.”

Oh.

“I understand,” she says, relaxing a bit. “That’s why I thought knowledge of your mother might be enticing. You love your family, and maybe the pull of mystery would be enough to help…ignore the fact that your sister and father are there.” And maybe she thought that she would help a little, that she could guide him the rest of the way.

“She’s more important.” Luka closes his eyes. “I need to get her away from their manipulation.” He opens his eyes, and he looks more determined now.

“I know.” She presses a kiss to his cheek. “But if you need some help, I’m here.”

“I know.” He stands up.

“Good luck, Luka.”

He smiles. “I have a ladybug on my side, do I not?”

And she hopes, prays, _pleads_ that she’s enough good luck to help him in his mission.

**Author's Note:**

> When I remember to post my writing you can find me @beunforgotten on Tumblr.


End file.
